Monday, December 31, 2012

I am new to this blog/list. My name is Nathalie (yes, you do sound out the "th") and I live in Odessa, Texas. My day job is teaching Culinary Arts in the high schools. My students bus over to my kitchen/classroom/restaurant from the two high schools in town to be a part of my program. I have been teaching this for the last three years and even though I am extremely busy a good part of the year, I really, really love what I am doing. I get to be creative in the kitchen and help teach my students to learn how to cook, be self-sufficient and hopefully better citizens. At the end of the day I come home to my 5 fur babies (4 shi tzus and one yorkie - it's a long story) and sometimes if I am not too tired, create with fabric in my studio. When I get some extra time I design quilts and teach quilt classes. I have been sewing since I was 5 years old when I made my first dress - zipper, too and have been making quilts since I was a sophomore in high school. I just turned 50 this year so I have been at it a long, long time. Below are a couple of pictures of me.

This picture is the one you will see of me when I post or comment. It's the one on facebook and blogger.

This one is of me a couple years ago at family reunion. Sorry it's so small, but I cropped it from another picture my cousin sent and the pixels blur it when I enlarge it. I will have to work on getting another "good" picture of me.

How would I describe my quilting style? Hmmm. That is hard, but I would have to say, eclectic, modern traditional with a twist? Does that make sense to you? I enjoy the traditional blocks and quilt making, but I mix it up a bit or a lot! I am enjoying the modern quilt movement on the blogs and have even made some of those patterns with my own interpretation, but I really lean more towards Gwen Marston, Denyse Schmidt, improvisational styles. I love making my own fabric from scraps in the "15 minutes Play" style and then incorporating that into quilts. I have been a fabriholic from a very young age and have a huge HUGE stash of fabrics. I don't usually purchase quilt kits (even though I have a couple here waiting to be made only because I loved the pattern/fabrics) but, do purchase lots of fabric, especially when it's on sale. The majority of the fabric I have has been purchased on sale. I have made a few "ugly" fabric quilts that have turned out to be some of the most beautiful quilts you have ever seen and you wouldn't know they started out with a fabric no one else, especially me, loved. I enjoy making quilts with lots of fabric combinations. The more the merrier, I say. I will put holiday fabrics in with my other everyday fabrics if the color combination works. You may say, "hey, I like that orange fabric" and then get closer to it and realize it's spiders from Halloween. It's all about the color with me.

I am looking forward to making a block for each of you and getting to know you all this year. I "met" Beebee this year when she joined in my Stocking Swap from my blog. When she asked if I would be interested in joining this group, I said yes. I haven't participated in a monthly block swap in quite awhile and thought it would be fun to get back into that. I look forward to the challenge everyone will set for us each month and am glad I am toward the end of the year so I have plenty of time to plot and plan my selection.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Hello everyone, I'm Liz or Lizzie to my blogging friends and I live in a tiny village in the hills west of Melbourne, Australia . I'm a passionate photographer, a quilter who hand quilts, I love playing around on the computer and I taught computer until a few weeks ago, I absolutely adore my nine (and a bit that's due in July) grandchildren, I work/play in a patchwork and quilt shop in a small country town 10kms from my home and love it. There's a link on my personal blog to Millrose, so if you want to keep up with what I'm up to you can go there...

I've been with this Bee since we started it, I think four years ago now and I've made some great friends here and hope to make many more.

I've given the blog a bit of a facelift today, I hope you all like it, you can find the blog roll, a list of whose month it is and the followers list at the bottom of the page. There will only be three (3) posts to a page to make loading quicker, if you put your name and country as a label when you post that will make it easier to know who is who. I'll be taking care of the blog still so if you have any problems here let me know, for those of you that are new this year, I'll be adding your names today so you'll get an invite to join from blogger. You'll need to accept that before you can post here. Also if you're new could you send me a link to your personal blog so that I can put you in the blog roll...

I'm looking forward to meeting all the new members through this blog and I'll be sending out fabric etc by the middle of January. Please remember when you post to us Aussies that it can take up to three weeks to reach us sometimes (especially Sue who lives at the end of the earth.. ;o)

I am ready to send out the information for the 2013 Bee Balm Bee. I am still waiting to hear from a couple of you.
As soon as I get all the information we will be able to get started.
I think 2013 will be a wonderful year for us all!